The present invention pertains to a system for issuing transferable or negotiable documents, such as gift certificates, at a central station, typically located in a shopping center or the like, where the various merchants of the center are participants.
A gift certificate system is disclosed and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,243,174 and 5,500,514, issued, respectively, Sep. 7, 1993 and Mar. 19, 1996, and both assigned to the Gift Certificate Center, Inc. In this system, a customer interacts with the system through a touch-type of monitor and a computer-generated menu of choices and selects one or more gift certificates of various amounts and a selected commercial retailer from a menu of participating retailers. This information is communicated back to a central processing station. Upon payment through a credit card or a like card, properly identified and accepted, the gift certificate or certificates are printed by a printer and issued to the customer. Each certificate is unique for the selected merchant and may be used only t the selected retailer, and the information concerning the credit card is processed by the central processing unit and billed to the credit card account. Information concerning the transaction may be communicated periodically back to the participating retailer from the central processing unit.
Still another system of issuing money orders is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,596 issued Sep. 26, 1989 and assigned to Republic Money Orders, Inc. In this system, a money order dispenser is located in a retail establishment and comprises a monitor, a local data processor and memory device, an input device, and a printer. A system controller is located at a remote location and controls the overall operation of the system. It is contemplated that each operator employed at the retail establishment would have a code unique to that operator for preparing and issuing money orders. Changing of the operator codes and parameters of the money order values and limits would require the use of a separate code unique to the person at the establishment imbued with the responsibility and authority to make such changes. Additionally, safety features are installed to disable the system should tampering of the printer be detected. Periodically, the local memory device is polled by the remote controller for information concerning the money order transactions, and such information is transmitted to the remote controller.
The systems described in the patent literature have a variety of shortcomings including the inability to customize some or all of the documents that may be issued in a single transaction. Additionally, the trend today is for the management of the shopping centers and malls to develop services for the various merchants in that mall. Thus, it is becoming increasingly important that the issued documents be usable for each mall merchant that agrees to participate in a document programs such as a gift certificate program. However, it is important that such documents like gift certificates, even where large multiple document transactions are conducted, have a personalized appearance.
Thus, it is a paramount object of the present invention to devise an operator-friendly system in which each document can be specifically personalized, if desired, without requiring a great deal of operator time.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide for a system that has wide flexibility, allowing for the preparation of multiple documents, each personalized with a message appropriate for the occasion.
It is yet an additional object of the present invention to provide for system having the aforementioned flexibility that is accepted by all participating merchants of the system when installed in a mall or shopping center.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide for a system that is secure and reacts to unusual circumstances by requiring input of necessary information before continuing the preparation and dispensing of documents.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide for a secure system having a first level of security that requires the use of an external key before certain important system parameters can be changed or altered by supervisory personnel.
It is still yet another important object of the present invention to provide for a system that has a second level of security compatible with the first level of security ensuring that only selected operators can customize and dispense documents to customers.